“This contest really wasn’t about pizza,” said Vincent Virga, president of the Bayonne Chamber of Commerce during the June 7 Chamber social, at which winners of the first annual Bayonne’s Best Pizza Challenge were awarded prizes,” according to the Hudson Reporter.

“Despite the fact that local pizzerias were getting the awards, there wasn’t a pizza to be found at the Chambers’ Summer Kickoff Networking Reception at Villa Maria.

“This,” Virga said of the contest, “is about providing businesses with the incentive to promote themselves.”

Seated near the entrance, Virga greeted business owners as they came in, many of whom had come just to touch base with others as part of the Chamber’s effort to keep business people rubbing shoulders to share business strategies and to find solutions to business problems they might be having.

Business owners sometimes get complacent, Virga said between handshakes and greetings, and this is where the Chamber and its social events fit in.”